Steamboats were economic instruments that profoundly influenced the development of the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula. The vessels also acted as social instruments as they became entwined with the lives of people and affected their day-to-day communication, interaction, and habits.

This series, Steamboat Wharf Stories, provides the viewer with first- and second-person accounts of events that occurred during the latter part of the Steamboat Era (1900 - 1950s) on and around the steamboat wharfs. These stories - some amusing, some serious - provide a better understanding of tidewater lifestyles and offer hints of what it was like to live during those steamboat days.

Blackstrap Handling

Dockside Adventures

Leaving Home

Livestock Tales

Dockside Frolics

Nerve-Wracking Experience

Passenger Frolics

Social Hour

Steamboat Accidents & Mishaps

The interviews have been collected through the efforts of Bruce King and Dianne Jordan, Former Executive Directors of the Steamboat Era Museum; Talking Across the Lines; and Mattingly Productions, Ltd. The series was produced and edited by Mattingly Productions, Ltd.

Funding for the interivews was made possible through grants from The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, The Scott Opler Foundation and the Verizon Foundation.